CHARGERS PREFER DRAFT, THEN FREE AGENCY

There is a place called Bizarro World, where front is back, tall is short, right is wrong, where the normal order of a usual world goes inverted.

This is a place of fiction.

If only, as it applies to the Chargers, this NFL offseason was an exception.

The team is littered with roster holes, and a chance to address them approaches with the Tuesday start of free agency. Much of what San Diego does beginning Tuesday will be maneuvered with an eye toward the NFL Draft starting April 25.

Specifically, when deciding in free agency how best to fill their needs, the Chargers project what players will be available to them when they’re on the clock.

Take the No. 11 pick of the offensive line-needy team, for example.

Should they address the need at pick 11 and select an offensive lineman in the first round for the first time since 1986, regardless of which prospects are on the board?

At tackle, Luke Joeckel, Eric Fisher and possibly Lane Johnson could be gone. Same goes for guards Chance Warmack and Johnathan Cooper. What then?

In Bizarro World, the April draft comes before March free agency.

Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco said he’d be “all for that.”

“You try and project what may happen in the draft, but it’s hard,” said Telesco. “You try and see who’s there in the draft and how you can combine that with who’s there in free agency. But when the draft is after free agency, it’s hard. It’s hard to predict who’s going to be there.

“We’re at 11, so there are only 10 teams who are in front of us. It is easier for us than if you’re picking at 24, 25, but you just don’t know sometimes. … I think teams would make less mistakes in free agency if you already knew who you had through the draft.”

Free agency won’t wait.

The Chargers, Telesco knows, must make their moves now.

On Friday, he said he spoke with left tackle Jared Gaither about a week earlier. Gaither was out of town, so the long conversation took place on the phone instead of in person.

“Better than nothing,” Telesco said. “At least I got a chance to talk to him at length and get a feel for him. I wasn’t here last year, so I kind of get his side of what happened last year. Nothing new with him right now. Nothing imminent right now.”

In terms of impact on the 2013 salary cap, the difference between releasing and keeping Gaither is negligible. He will count $6 million if cut, $6.5 million if kept.

His roster replacement would cost more than $500,000 against the cap, so it’s essentially cheaper in that sense to keep him. But as cash goes, keeping Gaither means the Chargers would put an additional $4.5 million into the 6-foot-9 lineman’s pocket.

He’s already earned $9 million for his four games in 2012.

Gaither is only part of the equation on the offensive line. Center Nick Hardwick is the one set piece. The other four starting spots are fluid.